Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I will respond to your question too, even though you did not ask me, Senator Macdonald. I hesitate a bit because I have heard you ask this question umpteen times and you do not seem to ever take much notice of the answers that are given. I have not seen the latest statistics, but I think Australia is either No. 9 or No. 10 on the list of greenhouse gas emitters. In other words, we are the 10th largest emitter. It may not seem a lot—somewhere between one and two per cent, I think, is our contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions—but we are No. 10, and that means that there are hundreds of countries that emit less than we do. Now, if we and all of those countries took the same attitude you would like to see this country take, Senator Macdonald, then what chance would there be of us ever being able to get global cooperation? Zilch. Absolutely zero.

Not only that but also we are the biggest emitters on a per capita basis, because we are big wasters. Sure, we have got a big country and we have got to transport people around it, but on that point, Senator Macdonald, as I travel around country Victoria mostly but other states as well, the constant refrain I get is: ‘The public transport doesn’t serve us. There’s so much money that goes into roads, and it’s fine if you’ve got a car and it’s fine if you can afford the petrol to get yourself from point A to point B, but what we want is a decent bus service from Geelong to Bendigo,’ or from Shepparton to Echuca or some such, ‘and it’s not there.’

The implications of that are that young people, old people, families with not a lot of income and many, many people in country areas are disadvantaged by the sorts of attitudes and policies of the former government and state governments—I acknowledge that; state governments are no different in terms of seeing it as important to put money into roads and not look at the alternatives. I think a lot more money needs to be put into transport generally. Look at the Roads of National Importance program. That money was spent on a freeway around Melbourne! And we all know that it was done for political reasons. Political parties said, ‘We’ll get more votes out in the Scoresby area if we put this freeway in.’ Everyone knows that. That is common knowledge, absolutely common knowledge. So I am just as critical of state governments as I hope you are, Senator Macdonald, but I am also very critical of your government because for almost 12 years it ignored public transport.

There was a very good program under the former Labor government called Better Cities. I think that was its name. You can chuckle, Senator Macdonald, but it did include public transport, and that is crucial—public transport in the country, in the city, everywhere. There are people who do not have cars or have cars but cannot afford to drive them who need public transport, and it is missing. We would get a lot of people off the road if we improved the level of service in public transport in our cities and elsewhere. It is the least that Infrastructure Australia should be looking at. Anyway, I think we have clarified that it will, and that is a very good thing. But I wanted to pick up—sorry, we seem to be missing a minister altogether now. We were on our third minister, but he has absented himself from the chamber. Obviously, not exactly—